


Old Things Have Passed Away

by FallingStarlight (MorbidRobin)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Accidental Time Travel, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Master of Death Harry Potter, Minor James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Peggy Sue, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-07-28 14:45:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16243817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorbidRobin/pseuds/FallingStarlight
Summary: As he lay dying in the Shrieking Shack, Snape goes back in time.Accidentally.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> So, looking for a time travel fix it fic with Snape that had no pairings whatsoever.
> 
> Couldn't find any, so had to write one myself. 
> 
> This is terribly written but by God I hope to complete it. 
> 
> Internet, behold my atrocious writing!
> 
> So I would really love it if anyone got inspired by this story and decided to write theirs!
> 
> Prompt:  
> Time travel Snape.
> 
> An absolute must:  
> Snape must remain single. No pairing whatsoever!  
> No sane Voldemort.  
> No good death eaters  
> No romance!

It's said that when you're dying, your life flashes before your eyes.

For Severus, it was no different.

As life was gradually seeped from his body, he had so many regrets, so many dreams unfulfilled.

So many wishes ungranted.

But yet...

He was tired. A long, lonely existence trying to amend for a mistake made in a pique of anger. A tasking and bitter experience he had been living.

And so, as he laid dying, he let go.

___________***___________

His eyes opened and all at once he knew that this wasn't hell.

Or heaven.

Or the afterlife.

Because the smell of disinfectant and potions, the whites of the walls, the hardness of the bed gave only to one conclusion:

He was in the Hogwarts Infirmary.

So did he survive then? How had he survived?

The Dark Lord's familiar's poison was thought to have no cure. He'd knew, as he had tried all kinds of healing potions and spells and they all failed.

A figure came bustling in, muttering under her voice, words that he couldn't make out.  
As he turned to look, it was madame Pomprey.

Only she could a whole much younger than he remembered.

An idea crept into his mind, was it possible that he was hallucinating due to the poison?

If he was, he prayed for death to come quicker. He had no intention of living a past memory.

"How are you feeling, Snape?"

He gave no answer, he had no wish to interact with a memory.

She sighed, "Alright, I'll leave it to you then." She turned around and left.

Minutes passed and Severus waited for the hallucination to end. He was certain he was dead. Perhaps he had fallen into coma? He debated the possibilities within his mind.

No matter, real or not, he never liked the infirmary. He got up, and decided to take a walk. Perhaps, he thought,if he walked around, something would end this nightmare.

Of course, if he had heard what the mediwitch had said under her breath, ("Honestly, Potter and his ilk, hanging you by your underwear like that...")

Severus would have known that this was no dream nor hallucination.

But what you don't know _can_ kill you.

Or sometimes change your life.


	2. 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Suicide attempt. Suicidal thoughts.

As he walked and walked and walked, be wondered when this hallucination would end. 

Or perhaps this was the afterlife?

Doomed to be cursed in a memory of "happier times"?

He managed to evade Filch and his cat and his feet took him to the astronomy tower.

Where he killed Albus. 

Perhaps, it was fitting. If this was a dream of some sort, dying would wake him up. If this were the afterlife, it would make no difference. 

Well, then. He put two feet forward...

And let go.

(Not once did Snape ever consider possiblity that he may have gone back in time.)

____*____

Snape woke up. Surrounded by mist and fog. He was finally dead, he breathed a sigh of relief. 

Having to relieve his years as a Hogwarts student was terrible. His musings were interrupted by a voice.

"Well, this is awkward."

Out of the shadows, a lone figure came out, with green eyes and unruly hair, a lighting bolt shaped scar, the boy may have aged, but Snape knew that face anywhere.

"Potter!"

"Hello, professor."

"What are you doing here, Potter?"

"That's what I should ask you, professor. I didn't send you back in time for you to get yourself killed." 

"What nonsense are you spouting now?'

"You see, I held all three hallows and became the Master of Death. You once held the elder wand, so that's why I could choose you." 

"To do what?"

"Go back in time, change things."

"Why not go back yourself?"

"Death is not willing to let me go." Harry responded.

A chance to do better, Lily would still be alive. He had not yet taken the dark mark. He could be free of Voldemort.

"But I'm dead now, I fell off the Astronomy Tower."

"Yes, at the moment healers are struggling to save your life. You can chose to move on or stay back."

"Just so you know, I sent you back just in time before you could ruin your friendship with Lily forever."

"I choose to go back."


	3. Fallout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Snape is in coma, how his suicide affects the Wizarding world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like James, Sirius after they left Hogwarts. But during their Hogwarts years, they were bullies. 
> 
> I'll try not to bash them much.

Fallout.

Interlude.

Snape would have probably reconsidered his decision to fall if he had known that he would be seen.

A Hufflepuff perfect, doing rounds saw him as he fell. Unfortunately, his spells weren't fast enough to stop the boy's fall. So he ran to get Poppy. 

He passed a Ravenclaw perfect and told him that a Slytherin has thrown himself off the astronomy tower. 

The last time a student died (Myrtle), the board forced the headmaster to create wards that would alert the board and put the entire school on lockdown if a student was on the verge of death. 

Needless to say, the ward sent an alarm that forced the teachers to wake up. Headmaster Dumbledore with the rest of the staff was on their feet and running when they met the Hufflepuff.

And the whole sordid tale came out. Even the portraits admitted the boy looked lifeless, as though he had lost hope. 

By the time, they reached his body at the edge of the tower, Severus Snape was dead. No body would have been able to survive like that twisted at all angles. 

But yet there was a pulse.

Dumbledore called for Fawkes who took them to St. Mungo's.

 

____***___

Even in the past and in the future, The board was extremely nosy. An investigation was made by the DMLE. They had to be sure that it wasn't a murder. Using pensieve memories, it was ruled as a suicide. 

Then the questions began. Why did a student commit suicide?

Now, most of the board was purebloods so a matters concerning a half-blood where none of their concern...

Only that the Dark Lord had been interested in Severus. His potions skills were unparalleled. So it suddenly became their priority. 

And a chance to kick out Dumbledore from Hogwarts. 

Pieces started coming together. Students wracked by guilt, confessed and told the story from when he was hung upside down till when Lily Evans got in and freed him from their humiliation and how he passed out afterwards. 

Snape's dorm mates confirmed that Snape had recently lost his mother. That he had been barely appearing at the Great Hall, had become even more of a recluse that usual.

The pressure was intense. Purebloods were incensed. If a bunch of children could motivate a child to kill himself, what couldn't they do? 

What was the limit? Who was to say that they wouldn't do worse as adults? The Dark faction of Wizengamot called the Light Faction on their hypocrisy. 

How they pretended to be good but yet one of their own could do such a heinous thing. Charlus Potter was under fire for not being able to rein in his son. James Potter suddenly found that he was looked at with fear, disgust and scorn whenever he passed. Lily was no more on speaking terms with him. 

Sirius Black was immediately disowned and cast out of the Black Family. Regulus was made the heir to the Most Ancient and Noble house of Black. 

Pettigrew's mother withdrew him from Hogwarts and left the country. 

Remus Lupin was left hanging by a thread. 

The most popular group in Hogwarts were no more.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snape wakes up to a changed world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you noticed a pattern, I don't like Remus much. Anybody that abandons his pregnant wife is an absolute bastard to me. Not to mention he never explained why he never tried to visit Harry or Sirius. 
> 
> If roles were reversed, Sirius would have demanded to know why Remus betrayed them.
> 
> Remus didn't even try.
> 
>  
> 
> Spoiler: *Gasp* I killed Peter.

When he woke up, he knew instantly that he wasn't in Hogwarts.

Judging by the stillness of the ward that reminded him too much of a Muggle hospital, he deducted that he was in St. Mungo's.

There must have been proximity alarms to alert the healers when he woke, because one came rushing in.

Judging by the colour of the robes, it was a mind healer.

_Ah, shit._

Over the next couple of days, Snape was denied visitors. Mind healers came and went as attempts at getting the poor boy to open up was futile. Eventually one healer was able to get through the thick walls the boy had built around himself, by discussing a common love: Potions.

Debates ensured from one potions master to another. St. Mungo's realised what an asset they had in their hands. They being a neutral faction in the war, were absolutely determined to keep him.

He was offered an apprenticeship on the spot. Provided he be of strong mind and heart, he would get a potions mastery in six months. He was being hailed a prodigy.

The last time, Severus had depended on the graces of the Dark Lord to get the connections needed to gain a potions mastery. Due to that, he was in the Lord Voldemort's debt. He had to take the Dark Mark.

And now, he was free from that.

Severus will deny it to his dying day, that when given the news of the apprenticeship, he put his face in a pillow and cried.

___*___

Lily eventually came to visit. Her eyes were red and puffy and filled with so much guilt.

He was just glad she was alive.

Though a part of him whispered that she looked like a snot-nosed brat. He firmly perished the thought.

And yet, looking at Lily, he finally realised that he had taught generations of students her age. He had held her memory to an idealistic standard.

_The woman he had been in love with, had only existed in his mind._

He forgot how exhausting loving Lily was. How he never felt good enough, strong enough, handsome enough in her presence. How he feared losing what he considered a good thing.

Had he wasted his past life bitter for something he could never gain? Had he spent his life guilty and guilty as all his actions seemed to cause her pain? Lily evoked feelings of hope, of happier times.

And yet, seeing her here, he was forced to admit that that Lily did not exist.

It was a painful punch to the gut.

Regardless, he would not waste this second chance. He would not let her die a second time.

He swore it.

So he held her in a hug and she cried, and he comforted her as father would comfort a daughter.

And strangely enough, he was at peace. The terrible storm of guilt and hatred and bitterness that engulfed him for so many years was gone. It was still.

His mind cleared, his conscience free, Severus knew what he had to do.

With a flick of a wand, he had pulled a letter offering her a place in The Salem Academy in the United States. They would gladly help her pursue her Charms Mastery, all expenses paid.

"I pulled some strings and I know you've always wanted to do this. "

_He did not want to think about the fact that he and James Potter were the reason she didn't. James because she got pregnant, he, because he had gotten her killed._

"Sev, I can't possibly take-"

"If you choose to go, you, your parents and Petunia would get citizenships. I know that you've been worried that your family would become a target in the war."

_And thus fulfilling Harry's wish that Petunia never married Vernon._

Lily closed her eyes and breathed for a moment. She considered her options. She could not stand to be in Hogwarts, with the pitying and condensing looks, with mudblood slurs and casual discrimination. In the States, she would be free from that, her family free from the war. Maybe she could mend her relationship with her sister.

So many possibilities.

She breathed out, "I'll think about it, I'm more interested in you at the moment."

All talks of the future forgotten as old friends sought to connect once more.

Several weeks later, Lily and her family moved to the States and she started schooling at Salem.

Perhaps it was coincidence or fate, but James and Sirius had also left to school in the States.

Remus' parents refused to let him leave Britain.

Peter got himself killed in Europe.

_The more things change, the more some things never remain the same._


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus needs to make a potion for his mastery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hem, hem... I have read thousands of fiction, and I have seen overpowered Harry, Goblins, Hogwarts. 
> 
> I present something I haven't seen before.
> 
> An overpowered potion.
> 
> Enjoy.

For his mastery, Severus was required to make an original potion. It had be of tremendous use and should never been done before. For Severus, the potion to make was already in his head.

The Purification Potion. Designed to remove all "impurities" from magical blood and to generally make one's magic stronger. He needed beta testers for a trial.

The Wizarding world watched as he administered the potion to Crabbe and Goyle Senior. They went from barely magical dumb brutes to strong magically intelligent people. Filch went from squib to a wizard of decent power.

The potion cured the Black family madness that ran through generations, it cured a list of ailments that had had healers at a standstill for decades. Werewolves who took the potion found themselves cured, others found themselves immune to a werewolf's bite. There were rumours of being immune to dementors.

Needless to say, Wizards and witches were awed.

Even though the potion was still in beta phase and the new Potions Master Snape had warned that there could be side effects, people began taking it in doves. It was expensive to acquire, so it was limited to the purebloods that had the money.

Suddenly everyone was magically stronger. Lord Voldemort was not amused. He had looked at the potion properties and realised that taking it would restore him to a human form.

He'd rather die than to wear the face of Tom Riddle once more.

It didn't help that Dumbledore took the potion and his mind was cleared than ever and his magic even moreso. Dumbledore in exchange for a speedy approval of Severus' mastery,had ensured that every muggleborn in Hogwarts had gotten the potion.

Needless to say, Lord Voldemort had to give his followers permission to take the potion in order to get an advantage over the Light's faction.

All the while cursing the name of Severus.

The two factions had to come to a temporary truce, trying to get used to the new influx of power.

Severus Snape on the other hand, had become a very wealthy man. He had also tricked the entire wizarding world.

It would take a team of seasoned and professional curse breakers to have known that the potion was no ordinary potion, it was a curse in liquid form. As soon as a person drank it, they had cursed their entire descendants and bloodlines.

Considering the fact that all the purebloods were related...

  
_It didn't matter if one took the potion or not, as long as a relative did._

What was the curse, you ask? The curse was simple, destroy all Black Arts. Black arts is magic considered as utterly vile and a taboo. A well-known example is that of horcruxes. A little known example is the magic inherent in the Dark Mark.

So yes, Severus had made witches and wizards everywhere, a walking time-bomb. He had taken a vacation to Italy while waiting for the other shoe to drop.

That would be several months later.

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter

Regulus received an note from Slughorn telling him to hold a study group for all the younger Slytherins in the Room of Requirement once a week.

Regulus, the ever dutiful student and proper pureblood does not question this order. He was grateful for the reprieve it granted him from the more fanatical purebloods. And it did end up saving his life.

(The note wasn't really from Slughorn but from a man in Italy).

And once a week, students cursed with the purification potion would enter the Room where the diadem was kept. The diadem actively fought against the curse. But water can wear down rock with enough time and persistence.

One day, the room sufficiently filled with the lingering signatures of the cursed was strong enough to take on the horcrux.

The Diadem suffereth violence, and the violence taketh by force. As the horcrux fought to stay in existence, it did everything in its power to stay alive, as it had ingrained magic stolen from the wards.

It was ridiculously easy to leech off the magic and life force of those with the dark mark in order to survive. Despite that, it wasn't enough and so The Curse overcame it and the soul in the Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem was no more. The backlash however was enormous.

The explosion that rocked the very foundations of Hogwarts will be heard and felt, students, teachers all like will run to the Slytherin dungeons only to find a black burnt husk of place littered with human bodies.

The families of Malfoy, Avery, LeStrange, McNair, Bellatrix Black and others who pledged their services to Lord Voldemort, would be in deep mourning.

Regulus and the others with him, however would escaped certain death by sheer luck.

Unspeakables will discover that the explosion was a result of dark magic leeching off students and Hogwarts doing its best to defend its students.

But that's not all they'll discover. They discover that it was not in fact Dark magic but Black Magic of the horcrux kind, they'll discover that it belonged to Tom Marvolo Riddle who has self-styled himself Lord Voldemort.

Naturally, this was kept a secret so everybody knew , that the Dark Lord was a half-blood and he was mortal once more; but more importantly, _**he had killed their children.**_

For the first time in Wizarding History, the Dark Faction will turn against itself.

_A house divided against itself cannot stand._

Within days, hundreds of the pureblood faction had fallen in duels to the death. The purebloods attacked the others who still supported the Dark Lord then death eater sympathisers.

Speaking of Voldemort, the mortal Tom Riddle had hidden himself under layers of protective enchantments, sealing himself away from his followers leaving them to their fate, he had felt the destruction of each and every single horcrux.

After all, Tom had to flee from death. But the Curse was relentless. It traced the horcruxes and the Dark Marks back to its creator.

Angry Purebloods who will rip through Tom's wards and enchantments and would find the corpse of a man.

The body would be Ak'ed just to be sure. Then burnt with magical fire and the ashes purified with unicorn blood freely given.

_And Tom Riddle died, not with a bang but with a whisper._

And thus a new era would begin. Severus would permanently stay in Italy.  
James and Lily would still meet and eventually get together. Harry Potter would be born in the States, to a big family consisting of Grandparents, parents and dogfathers. He would never know suffering a day in his life.

_Old things have passed away and all things have become new._

**Finite.**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I would really love it if anyone got inspired by this story and decided to write theirs! 
> 
> Prompt:  
> Time travel Snape.
> 
> An absolute must:  
> Snape must remain single. No pairing whatsoever!  
> No sane Voldemort.  
> No good death eaters  
> No romance!


End file.
